Driver held in Brockton crash that killed Bridgewater woman

The 33-year-old woman, accused of driving drunk when she caused a fatal crash, was arraigned on indictments in Superior Court on Thursday.

Cody Shepard The Enterprise @cshepard_ENT

BROCKTON – Manuel Combra wore a remembrance of his wife on his T-shirt, while Pamela Fruzzetti held a framed photo of her sister. And family members wept in the courtroom Thursday morning as they faced the woman accused of killing their loved one.

Danielle Mastro, 33, was arraigned on 10 indictments in Brockton Superior Court related to an Oct. 3 fatal crash in the city that claimed the life of 58-year-old Deborah Combra of Bridgewater. She pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Judge Angel Kelley Brown ordered Mastro, who has been in a Framingham jail since the day after the crash, be held on $50,000 bail.

Mastro was indicted by a grand jury in early December on several charges, including motor vehicle manslaughter by drunken driving, motor vehicle homicide by drunken driving and negligent operation and leaving the scene of a death.

About a dozen family members and friends of Deborah Combra attended the arraignment, after the case was elevated from district to superior court with the indictments. The victim’s sisters, Fruzzetti and Laura Melville, comforted each other while holding a framed photo of their sister. They wiped tears away during the hearing while wearing black “Justice for Debbie Combra” T-shirts.

Manuel Combra, the husband of the crash victim, wore a T-shirt that read, “If I could have anyone in the world it would still be my wife.”

On Quincy Street that October afternoon, Mastro rear-ended Deborah Combra, who was stopped and preparing to turn into her office’s parking lot. The collision forced Deborah Combra’s vehicle into a dump truck and she was ejected from the vehicle.

Assistant District Attorney Russell Eonas said Mastro was found to have a .137 blood-alcohol content level when she was tested at a Brockton hospital about an hour after the crash. The legal limit is .08.

“She, later, in an interview with police, acknowledged she was the operator of the car and, very callously, using some pretty suggestive expletives, said she was dope-sick and needed to get out of there to get her stuff before the police got there,” he said. “What she was referencing was her need to purchase heroin because she was having cravings earlier in the day.”

Prosecutors say Mastro walked away from the scene – directly past Deborah Combra, who was injured in the road.

“My sister was dead on the street. How can you just walk away from that?,” Fruzzetti said outside the courthouse. “I don’t care how intoxicated, how drugged – anything – how could you not know that my sister was laying there?”

A passenger in the vehicle, Maria Jette, suffered a broken leg. She attended the court hearing with the family and is still using a crutch and not yet able to go back to work.

“I’m just so sad that I lost my friend,” Jette, of Brockton, said about her seven-year friend and co-worker while wiping away tears. “It’s just not fair.”

Mastro’s court-appointed defense attorneys, James Corbo and Alison King, did not deny that she caused the crash. But they said there is no evidence that Mastro knew she caused serious injury or death. Corbo asked the judge to set bail at $10,000, which was denied.

“Our position is that the lead charge, there’s no probable cause for that,” Corbo said. “It certainly won’t reach beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Mastro faces up to 20 years in state prison if convicted of the motor vehicle manslaughter charge.

Her mother, Susan Mastro, and aunt attended the hearing. Corbo said his client has “tremendous family support,” but that they want her to receive treatment for a drug addiction rather than be released. Corbo said his client had no means to post bail and the family wasn’t expected to at this time.

Mastro is currently serving a six-month suspended sentence on another case because she was on probation at the time of the crash. She was sentenced to serve the six months related to a resisting arrest charge in Stoughton that was part of a summer 2015 shoplifting incident.

Brown, the judge, said the same bail set in district court was still appropriate.

“There is a considerable flight risk that she poses,” the judge said. “The seriousness of the offense, as well as the potential penalty in the case, it does require substantial bail.”

Mastro is due back in court on March 6 for a pre-trial conference and then May 2 for a pre-trial hearing.

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